Bangladesh's Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) with the United States is facing sharp criticism, with analysts arguing that the deal — signed in the dying days of the interim administration of Dr Muhammad Yunus — amounts to little more than accepting terms dictated by the Donald Trump administration, according to an analysis published by Dhaka-based newspaper The Daily Star.

The Controversial Signing

Bangladesh formalised the ART on 9 February 2026, just three days before a national election that removed the Yunus-led interim government from power. Critically, no elected parliament debated or ratified the agreement before it was signed — and the successor government has, according to reports, not subjected it to legislative scrutiny since taking office either. Critics have characterised the move as a lame-duck administration binding its successors to open-ended commitments the country never had a democratic mandate to approve.

How Bangladesh Compares With Its Neighbours

Among South Asian nations, Bangladesh was the first to sign an ART, yet the analysis struggles to identify what that haste actually delivered. Pakistan and Sri Lanka, by contrast, remain in active but unhurried negotiations and have reportedly not conceded the terms Bangladesh accepted. India, meanwhile, operates under a separate interim trade framework — even as it faces exposure to the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which targets buyers of discounted Russian oil and gas.

The Most Asymmetric Deal Among Signatories

Of the 10 countries that have signed the ART, Bangladesh's version is described in the analysis as the most one-sided. The argument is not that any single clause is uniquely exotic — most mechanisms exist in some form across other signatories' agreements. Rather, it is the aggregate weight of obligations, combined with the peculiar circumstances under which Dhaka signed, that distinguishes Bangladesh's deal. Notably, Bangladesh entered the agreement with lower exports and a smaller trade surplus with the US than most other signatories, making the sweeping scope of its commitments all the more striking.

The Democratic Accountability Question

The analysis in The Daily Star draws a pointed distinction: 'No one has clearly explained what economic or political calculus persuaded an interim government to lock in an open-ended trade relationship on its way out the door. Critics are right to call this what it is: a lame-duck administration locking its successors into commitments the country never had a chance to vote on. That charge doesn't apply to the other signatories, whose governments actually had a mandate to sign,' the article observes. This raises a structural question about treaty legitimacy that Bangladesh's new legislature has yet to formally address.

What Comes Next

The newly elected Bangladeshi parliament faces pressure from trade experts and civil society groups to either renegotiate the ART's terms or pass legislation clarifying its domestic legal standing. How Dhaka navigates this — and whether the Trump administration proves willing to reopen discussions — will determine whether Bangladesh can claw back any leverage in what critics are calling an unequal arrangement.